Keep Me Close
by Dance Elle Dance
Summary: The vibrant red of her heart is marred with inky black. Somehow, Robin thinks, those supposed flaws make it all the more beautiful. RobinRegina, set during 3x16, oneshot


_**Disclaimer:**_ _I don't own Once Upon a Time._

 _ **Summary: The vibrant red of her heart is marred with inky black. Somehow, Robin thinks, those supposed flaws make it all the more beautiful. RobinRegina, set during 3x16, oneshot**_

 _My first fanfic for the OUAT fandom! I am very excited to be able to finish up this thing that I've started so long ago. Regina is probably my favorite character and I love her relationship with Robin, so this little thing was born. It's set in episode 3x16, and follows their little scene in the woods and kind of diverges off of that. It's pretty short but I really just wanted to write for these two so badly. So here this is! I really hope that this is well-received, because I've been wanting to write something for this fandom and this pairing for so long and I'm pretty excited. Thanks so much for giving this a shot!_

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 **Keep Me Close**

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She looks at him and presses her heart into his hand.

"Would you mind holding onto this for a bit longer?"

The very action is enough to stun Robin into silence, enough to make his own heart yearn for her clenching fingers just so he can have that heat in the center of his body. He looks at her, eyes widening in a question, grasping the heart so loosely it is dangerously close to falling from his fingers. But he dare not squeeze too tightly, for to do so would mean something completely unfathomable.

"You're really going to entrust something so valuable to a common thief like me?" he asks, forcing his voice above the hoarse whisper he wants it to be.

Regina looks at him, her eyes intense but oddly friendly, a smile playing on her red lips. It is almost enough.

And then she speaks, and it is _everything_.

"You can't steal something that's been given to you." A smile - a genuine, jaw-dropping smile. Her eyes are alive in her face, looking at him like no other woman has ever done before. It makes him slightly slack-jawed; he is certain at that moment he is the very image of a fool.

Her fingers grasp his wrist gently before she turns and walks away. Robin cannot let her go just like that, so he calls out after her, offering her the most mundane of things in response to her grand gesture.

"You still owe me that drink."

He can _hear_ her smile. "Yes, I suppose I do."

Robin finds himself standing alone in the dark forest, watching her walk away, memorizing her each and every movement, hearing the crunch of leaves beneath those expensive boots of hers. He is entranced, enraptured. He cannot find it in himself to take his gaze from her, or to move from this spot, or to place her heart back in that cold, wretched place where it does not belong.

 _But it is safe there,_ his thoughts call out to him. _It is safe there. Keep her safe._

Robin looks down at the small sack that holds the heart. _**Her**_ _heart,_ the voice whispers again. He gives into curiosity and peaks down at it, his eyes immediately taking in each and every part of this treasured item, swirling inky black and bright red warring along its surface - more of the former than the latter.

He would be lying if he said it wasn't the most beautiful thing in the world.

Long fingers reach down into the satchel and gently touch the surface of her heart. Doing so feels so intimate, so taboo, that he almost jerks away. Almost.

Her heart is warm beneath his fingers, and also strangely cold, he finds, as his fingers run across the darkened areas. Robin finds himself wanting to know all these parts of her, no matter her past, no matter her future. He wants to know each and every bit of it - even the parts that have earned her the darkest marks on her soul.

And that thought pierces through him like an arrow through the chest.

 _"Would you mind holding onto this for a bit longer?"_

Robin tightens his grip on the satchel.

"I wouldn't have it any other way."

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 _ **End.**_


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